Most memorable flight ..... ever! (Merged)
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Stuck in the middle...
Posts: 1,638
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
Sorry but I've got five. All equal.
1) First flight - F27 in country Australia, about 6yo.
2) First open-cockpit flight - Tiger moth, the old man flying, beautiful clear day. I couldn't get the grin off my dial for weeks.
3) BA Conc 1977 IAD-LHR. I still recall the gentle pushes in the lower back as we crossed mach 1. I think it was either AA or AG but I can't recall that exactly.
4) Up front as a 10-year-old nigt t/o out of Kai Tak in a CX 707... wow, all those dials...
5) My first solo, C152, early, misty morning - had to remind myself to stop singing & yelling to do my checks & make my tower calls!! Quite unexpected, had been doing circuits & bumps & then on one landing, the instructor said 'right, pull into the taxiway' - thought I'd stuffed it as we had the bird for an hour & this was only about 20 mins into it. He then said 'righto, away you go, I'm going for some breakfast' - shut the door & started walking!!
But they're all special, really.
1) First flight - F27 in country Australia, about 6yo.
2) First open-cockpit flight - Tiger moth, the old man flying, beautiful clear day. I couldn't get the grin off my dial for weeks.
3) BA Conc 1977 IAD-LHR. I still recall the gentle pushes in the lower back as we crossed mach 1. I think it was either AA or AG but I can't recall that exactly.
4) Up front as a 10-year-old nigt t/o out of Kai Tak in a CX 707... wow, all those dials...
5) My first solo, C152, early, misty morning - had to remind myself to stop singing & yelling to do my checks & make my tower calls!! Quite unexpected, had been doing circuits & bumps & then on one landing, the instructor said 'right, pull into the taxiway' - thought I'd stuffed it as we had the bird for an hour & this was only about 20 mins into it. He then said 'righto, away you go, I'm going for some breakfast' - shut the door & started walking!!
But they're all special, really.
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Scotland
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Aaah.... Getting all emotional here..
1 In British Caledonian BAC1-11 from Glasgow to Gerona on August 12th 1980. I was eight years old & it was the first time I had ever flown..Fell completely & madly in love with all things that flew from that day on.
Life was never to be the same!
2 24th May 1998. My first flying lesson. Almost taxied it it onto the grass,much to the amusement of my wonderful FI.Didn't do much better when actually airbourne,but what a memorable day..
3 23rd July 2001.My first aerobatic experience in a 'Starduster' belonging to one of my pals..Tearing along,inverted at 3000ft is truly the best fun to be had in any state of undress.Managed not to squeal,puke or beg for mercy..
4 The time I was travelling back from Eindhoven in the jumpseat of an SD3-60 & snogged the Captain.Naughty, but very nice...
5 Scariest? Today when eejit Ali did not check thoroughly enough that seat was properly locked in position. Seat chose to move back rapidly at exact moment key was turned in ignition & engine started, causing aforesaid eejit to kick throttle forwards,causing aircraft to move forwards against the not-quite-fully engaged parking brake for a distance of several feet.. Oh the shame & dishonour, not to mention the blinding stupidity!
Oh well,another lesson learned.
1 In British Caledonian BAC1-11 from Glasgow to Gerona on August 12th 1980. I was eight years old & it was the first time I had ever flown..Fell completely & madly in love with all things that flew from that day on.
Life was never to be the same!
2 24th May 1998. My first flying lesson. Almost taxied it it onto the grass,much to the amusement of my wonderful FI.Didn't do much better when actually airbourne,but what a memorable day..
3 23rd July 2001.My first aerobatic experience in a 'Starduster' belonging to one of my pals..Tearing along,inverted at 3000ft is truly the best fun to be had in any state of undress.Managed not to squeal,puke or beg for mercy..
4 The time I was travelling back from Eindhoven in the jumpseat of an SD3-60 & snogged the Captain.Naughty, but very nice...
5 Scariest? Today when eejit Ali did not check thoroughly enough that seat was properly locked in position. Seat chose to move back rapidly at exact moment key was turned in ignition & engine started, causing aforesaid eejit to kick throttle forwards,causing aircraft to move forwards against the not-quite-fully engaged parking brake for a distance of several feet.. Oh the shame & dishonour, not to mention the blinding stupidity!
Oh well,another lesson learned.
Join Date: Apr 1998
Location: 18m N of LGW
Posts: 945
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have but a few.
1) On the 5th leg from Sao Jose dos Campos Brazil in a Bandeirante over the Dominican Republic. In a raging storm at FL120 with active CB's and being told by ATC that any alterations in height or heading would be impossible due to Mil traffic exercises!!!!!!!!!! Then after what seemed like forever suddenly breaking loose from ALL wx and looked left and right to see a wall of vertical cloud extending from mountains up to FL280, with not a puff of cloud in front!! I have a picture of it. Staggering.
2) The approach into Goose in a snow storm when viz dropped to zilch and the only way in was a GCA - which was just about as perfect as it could be. In the bar that night with a room temp of 90f - the world seemed vastly different.
3) The approach into Narsaruaq where, if you needed it, you got a PERFECT lesson in perspective - providing you went up the correct fiord first! The wall of a mountain that seemed a few hundred yards away was over 8 miles. The Glacier at the end of the runway which seemed to encroach on it's TD point was 10 miles away. Oh! And the senior met man's surname was exactly the same as mine! Well it is Danish territory!
4) At the Tiger Club when the great Bezak, who escaped from the East with a number of his family in a AN-2 in the middle 70's, taught me to do a Lomcevak in a Stampe. A memorable experience indeed.
Many more but those were the best.
1) On the 5th leg from Sao Jose dos Campos Brazil in a Bandeirante over the Dominican Republic. In a raging storm at FL120 with active CB's and being told by ATC that any alterations in height or heading would be impossible due to Mil traffic exercises!!!!!!!!!! Then after what seemed like forever suddenly breaking loose from ALL wx and looked left and right to see a wall of vertical cloud extending from mountains up to FL280, with not a puff of cloud in front!! I have a picture of it. Staggering.
2) The approach into Goose in a snow storm when viz dropped to zilch and the only way in was a GCA - which was just about as perfect as it could be. In the bar that night with a room temp of 90f - the world seemed vastly different.
3) The approach into Narsaruaq where, if you needed it, you got a PERFECT lesson in perspective - providing you went up the correct fiord first! The wall of a mountain that seemed a few hundred yards away was over 8 miles. The Glacier at the end of the runway which seemed to encroach on it's TD point was 10 miles away. Oh! And the senior met man's surname was exactly the same as mine! Well it is Danish territory!
4) At the Tiger Club when the great Bezak, who escaped from the East with a number of his family in a AN-2 in the middle 70's, taught me to do a Lomcevak in a Stampe. A memorable experience indeed.
Many more but those were the best.
IFR, those GCA's into the Goose came in handy sometimes, didn't they? Mine was with a DC-3 on skis under similar circumstances. We'd been hauling fuel onto a lake north of Goose, and had nowhere else to go.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Bedfordshire
Age: 43
Posts: 302
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
best flights
1: air experience flight from Benson in a RAF bulldog. Hammerhead turns, barrel rolls, loops etc. For a 14 year old cadet is was a dream come true. Sick bag was well and truly used!!!
2: easyJet promo flight from LGW to GVA via the Swiss Alps. Passing the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc as close as 500ft was something else in an A319!!!
3: Flight from Biggin Hill in a C152 on a Sunday (not a quite day) when the radio failed. "blind" approach using the lights was quite fun (2 missed approaches when we werent spotted!!!)
2: easyJet promo flight from LGW to GVA via the Swiss Alps. Passing the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc as close as 500ft was something else in an A319!!!
3: Flight from Biggin Hill in a C152 on a Sunday (not a quite day) when the radio failed. "blind" approach using the lights was quite fun (2 missed approaches when we werent spotted!!!)
I'matightbastard
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Texas
Posts: 1,747
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Most frightening: Ttrying to punch through a thin layer and noticing the horizon is level, but the DG is showing a turn and then just getting...confused.
Most favourite: An ICOMP flight filed for 3000' with the tops at exactly 3000' and no wind. Just skimming along like we were driving a car and then descending into a cloud bank and watching the outside get darker and darker.
Most missed opportunity: being in a UAS and not going on Summer detachment to fly FJs
Most memorable: Not my flight but the day my brother passed his private flight test. I was his CFI
Most favourite: An ICOMP flight filed for 3000' with the tops at exactly 3000' and no wind. Just skimming along like we were driving a car and then descending into a cloud bank and watching the outside get darker and darker.
Most missed opportunity: being in a UAS and not going on Summer detachment to fly FJs
Most memorable: Not my flight but the day my brother passed his private flight test. I was his CFI
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: long island
Posts: 316
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
most memorable
So very many! Three stand out: sitting behind pilot of North American P-51D on a board seat and taking off at a 50 degree climb angle, with VSI pegged at 6000 feet per minute; reaching 61,000 feet in minutes in Capetown in ZU-BEX (Electric Lightning) and finally, BA002 on 6 June this year. Hoping to ride to 80,000 feet in Moscow next winter.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Horsham UK
Posts: 366
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ahh well most memorables...
First Solo need I say more...
Then there was flying Mother in Law Rimmer home from a visit last Summer last time she'd been in a light aircraft it was being flown by Alan Cobham...
Or
A couple of weeks back in Sao Jose dos Campos when I got to be the first journo to 'do a Clarkson' on the EMB170 - jolly pleasant aircraft (bet they spend a lot of time being hand flown when they enter service next month) and by happy coincidence when we'd finished I totally greased it
First Solo need I say more...
Then there was flying Mother in Law Rimmer home from a visit last Summer last time she'd been in a light aircraft it was being flown by Alan Cobham...
Or
A couple of weeks back in Sao Jose dos Campos when I got to be the first journo to 'do a Clarkson' on the EMB170 - jolly pleasant aircraft (bet they spend a lot of time being hand flown when they enter service next month) and by happy coincidence when we'd finished I totally greased it
Guest
Posts: n/a
1. Kathmandu to Lukla in Twin Otter. Fly into Everest valley and then land on a tiny (500m) strip with 30 degree upslope and no second chances on the side of a mountain.
2. Biman Bangledesh Airbus A310 Daka to Kathmandu...the approach to Kathmandu is breathtaking and with little runway remaining and a stinker of a landing full braking and screeching applied and lots of stuff flying around the cabin we managed to stop in time!
3. Biman Bangledesh DC10 Dubai to Rome.straight into a huge thunderstorm the first time I have been truly scared in a plane....huge thuds big drops and horendous turbulance. We went left and right and all over the place to try to get away from the blackness and flashes of blue over the wing.well scary for such a big plane.
2. Biman Bangledesh Airbus A310 Daka to Kathmandu...the approach to Kathmandu is breathtaking and with little runway remaining and a stinker of a landing full braking and screeching applied and lots of stuff flying around the cabin we managed to stop in time!
3. Biman Bangledesh DC10 Dubai to Rome.straight into a huge thunderstorm the first time I have been truly scared in a plane....huge thuds big drops and horendous turbulance. We went left and right and all over the place to try to get away from the blackness and flashes of blue over the wing.well scary for such a big plane.
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Busy elsewhere
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Best pax flight.. Malta to Zurich Christmas 93 (Swissair MD80).. so empty the crew upgraded everybody to first class and drowned them in Champagne while they watched the islands slide into the sunset...... aaaaah!!
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have two, one I was driving, the other I was jumping.
1) A summer flight from Coral Harbour to Repulse Bay (Artic Canada). All by myself in a twin piston popper. Crystal clear day. Ice packs in the ocean, Islands poking out of the bluest water you have ever seen. It was just like a painting. Couldn't have imagined anything more beautiful. I was as nervous as hell. Not a word was spoken over the headset. I was truly alone in the world. I could hear every cylinder, and every creak of the airframe. It was amazing.
2) Skydiving with 39 others out of a perfectly good DC3. I was standing on the wing of this DC3 at 12500 agl, when the jumpmaster signalled for everyone to jump. Good Times!! Ohh to be young!
1) A summer flight from Coral Harbour to Repulse Bay (Artic Canada). All by myself in a twin piston popper. Crystal clear day. Ice packs in the ocean, Islands poking out of the bluest water you have ever seen. It was just like a painting. Couldn't have imagined anything more beautiful. I was as nervous as hell. Not a word was spoken over the headset. I was truly alone in the world. I could hear every cylinder, and every creak of the airframe. It was amazing.
2) Skydiving with 39 others out of a perfectly good DC3. I was standing on the wing of this DC3 at 12500 agl, when the jumpmaster signalled for everyone to jump. Good Times!! Ohh to be young!
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Canada
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
In chronological order,
1) First solo, as ATC Cadet, RAF Chivenor, Kirby Cadet Mk 3 glider, before I was old enough to drive, many moons ago. Magic!!
2) Air experience, Vampire T ??, Exeter. Low level across trawler in Torbay.
3) Pax, Kenya Airways 707, LHR to NBO non stop, end of charter season flight, 6 passengers, spent most of time in the cockpit.
4) Pax, BA VC10 Seychelles to Colombo, in cockpit for take off (light load, what power!), also in cockpit for night landing in tropic storm.
5) Pax, Concorde LHR-JFK March 1979 or 80, all the normal superlatives about Concorde expressed better by others. Previous days flight schedule disrupted by hydraulic problems (it made the news, I remember!!). Leave LHR, captain announces technical problem, dump fuel, return to LHR. Mechanics all over the plane, 2+ hours champers etc. in lounge, back into plane. Take off, cruise climb to FL 700 (or does the memory become feeble with age?). Landing into JFK, later learnt with only one operational hydraulic system. Two flights for the price of one!! Really surprised by violent oscillations of outboard wingtip when at slow speed and high angle of attack whilst dumping fuel and on approach.
Connected onto AA DC 10 to SFO, after monster storm which shut down JFK, Conc followed us out and took off behind. I was listening to ATC on seat headset, Conc requested fuel dump and return to JFK. Read several years later that the problem was hydraulic fluid being topped up by BA using tanker stored outside. This introduced small amounts of moisture which then produced steam when system got up to operating temperatures and blew seals in the pumps. I believe at one point BA ran out of pumps and flights were cancelled. AF did not have same problem as they stored tanker inside. Anyone know anything more about this?
In closing I really thank all the crews who used to be able to indulge me with a visit to the cockpit during long flights. As a PPL with passion for aviation my inane questions were always patiently answered. Thanks guys, very much appreciated.
1) First solo, as ATC Cadet, RAF Chivenor, Kirby Cadet Mk 3 glider, before I was old enough to drive, many moons ago. Magic!!
2) Air experience, Vampire T ??, Exeter. Low level across trawler in Torbay.
3) Pax, Kenya Airways 707, LHR to NBO non stop, end of charter season flight, 6 passengers, spent most of time in the cockpit.
4) Pax, BA VC10 Seychelles to Colombo, in cockpit for take off (light load, what power!), also in cockpit for night landing in tropic storm.
5) Pax, Concorde LHR-JFK March 1979 or 80, all the normal superlatives about Concorde expressed better by others. Previous days flight schedule disrupted by hydraulic problems (it made the news, I remember!!). Leave LHR, captain announces technical problem, dump fuel, return to LHR. Mechanics all over the plane, 2+ hours champers etc. in lounge, back into plane. Take off, cruise climb to FL 700 (or does the memory become feeble with age?). Landing into JFK, later learnt with only one operational hydraulic system. Two flights for the price of one!! Really surprised by violent oscillations of outboard wingtip when at slow speed and high angle of attack whilst dumping fuel and on approach.
Connected onto AA DC 10 to SFO, after monster storm which shut down JFK, Conc followed us out and took off behind. I was listening to ATC on seat headset, Conc requested fuel dump and return to JFK. Read several years later that the problem was hydraulic fluid being topped up by BA using tanker stored outside. This introduced small amounts of moisture which then produced steam when system got up to operating temperatures and blew seals in the pumps. I believe at one point BA ran out of pumps and flights were cancelled. AF did not have same problem as they stored tanker inside. Anyone know anything more about this?
In closing I really thank all the crews who used to be able to indulge me with a visit to the cockpit during long flights. As a PPL with passion for aviation my inane questions were always patiently answered. Thanks guys, very much appreciated.
Two on floats as pax:
Early seventies. Sitting on the floor facing back in a C-180 steadying a drillbit between my knees on flight from the BP base at Lisboa on the Ucayali river, to Pucallpa. Ten-minute+ takeoff run before finding a boat's wake to bounce us up off the step. Trying not to think what that 50kg drillbit would do if we came to a sudden stop.
Same timeframe. FAP Twotter leaving the Oxy base on the Rio Tigre. Current sweeps us rear-first into the bank, breaking lots of the upright balsa trunks sticking up out of the shallows. Downriver takeoff run begins, cut short by a yell from me to stop and dislodge the balsa branch wedged between tailplane and control surface. Pilot later said he was wondering why the yoke was so stiff when he pulled back.
Early seventies. Sitting on the floor facing back in a C-180 steadying a drillbit between my knees on flight from the BP base at Lisboa on the Ucayali river, to Pucallpa. Ten-minute+ takeoff run before finding a boat's wake to bounce us up off the step. Trying not to think what that 50kg drillbit would do if we came to a sudden stop.
Same timeframe. FAP Twotter leaving the Oxy base on the Rio Tigre. Current sweeps us rear-first into the bank, breaking lots of the upright balsa trunks sticking up out of the shallows. Downriver takeoff run begins, cut short by a yell from me to stop and dislodge the balsa branch wedged between tailplane and control surface. Pilot later said he was wondering why the yoke was so stiff when he pulled back.
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Kelowna Wine Country
Posts: 509
Likes: 0
Received 24 Likes
on
10 Posts
Many but this particularly unforgettable.
5 yrs old, Standing beside Nancy in the nose of a Rapide on a sightseeing flight down the Thames from LHR. Banking over Tower Bridge and the Tower etched in memory it is still clear after 50+ years.
5 yrs old, Standing beside Nancy in the nose of a Rapide on a sightseeing flight down the Thames from LHR. Banking over Tower Bridge and the Tower etched in memory it is still clear after 50+ years.
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hmm, thread ressurected after three years, me too. Not Pruning much these days. Things have changed for me since September 2000. I see that I contributed already. But had another memorable flight since then. A lunchtime trip, one crisp hazy November day in a Pitts Special. 25 mins of exuberant aerobatics.
It was a two seater, my tormentor sat in the back. I sat in the front seat trussed and restrained by the rat's nest of a harness, my senses beaten by the roar of that vibrating engine, vertical climb on take off, pressed to the seat, glancing back to see the solid earth receding, felt the burble of the airflow as the tiny wings on the edge of a stall threatened to reverse our progress, my hand flying involuntarily upward as we levelled as my weight ceased to be a burden to me or the little Pitts.
Then with the customary clearing turns, he began to revolve the world. A roll, with the violence of a kick, to the right then to the left. I vainly grasped for a handhold and widened my stance to avoid the swirling joystick. My head smashed against the canopy, the helmet saving my senses. Loops were next, my head pressed to my chest, released, pinned again. The world outside a blurred green, blue unfocussed swirl. Then it was my turn, a loop, not enough speed. I fall out of it upside down, no control. I let it go just wait for our little aeroplane to find it's way and try again. This time better, I try again, this time it works and again. I'm an aerobatic pilot! A stall turn, more stall than turn, backwards this time we go. I'm a loser! My tormentor laughs. He shows me how to do it. More G, even more G, 5 at the last count.
We head back, the circuit is empty and my tormentor delights in showing off for the assembled few below. We loop and roll and fly all around the invisible envelope but to me it all looks and feels the same, ground, too close seeming. The sky swirling the earth turning, postive G, negative G. This is real torture but I'm smiling under the cosh. I momentarily note the pleasant grassy field spinning over our heads and think that if he gets it wrong, we die right there, right below, instantly and without appeal. But at this moment I don't care or fear that possibility because if we do, it is in the midst of expressing something we love. No better epitaph.
But today no one is dying, only living life over the edge of the precipice. We return to Earth not with a thump but with a whisper. Although the Pitts tries scare us again as it shakes it's tail and threatens to leave the runway and teach us to respect it more. I sit trembling as the engine stops with a final shrug of it's broad cylinders and twitch of it's stubby wings. I can barely move. My stomach churns, my head fizzes and spins while my shoulder twitches as the muscle which will bother me for weeks begins to feel the pain.
I thank the man who injured me, made me sick and renewed my soul in a glorious moment of violent three dimensional poetry and I crawl away happier than a lottery winner on Monday morning.
Recorded rather drily in my logbook as 25 mins P/UT Pitts Special - Aerobatics.
That was my most memorable flight, tragically made all the more memorable because I never flew as a pilot since. I haven't stopped flying really, just a small gap year or three. I'm going back to it soon, anytime now, not this week though. I've got to wash the car or something. Maybe the week after next? I'm still a pilot really, just in between flights. You know how it is?
It was a two seater, my tormentor sat in the back. I sat in the front seat trussed and restrained by the rat's nest of a harness, my senses beaten by the roar of that vibrating engine, vertical climb on take off, pressed to the seat, glancing back to see the solid earth receding, felt the burble of the airflow as the tiny wings on the edge of a stall threatened to reverse our progress, my hand flying involuntarily upward as we levelled as my weight ceased to be a burden to me or the little Pitts.
Then with the customary clearing turns, he began to revolve the world. A roll, with the violence of a kick, to the right then to the left. I vainly grasped for a handhold and widened my stance to avoid the swirling joystick. My head smashed against the canopy, the helmet saving my senses. Loops were next, my head pressed to my chest, released, pinned again. The world outside a blurred green, blue unfocussed swirl. Then it was my turn, a loop, not enough speed. I fall out of it upside down, no control. I let it go just wait for our little aeroplane to find it's way and try again. This time better, I try again, this time it works and again. I'm an aerobatic pilot! A stall turn, more stall than turn, backwards this time we go. I'm a loser! My tormentor laughs. He shows me how to do it. More G, even more G, 5 at the last count.
We head back, the circuit is empty and my tormentor delights in showing off for the assembled few below. We loop and roll and fly all around the invisible envelope but to me it all looks and feels the same, ground, too close seeming. The sky swirling the earth turning, postive G, negative G. This is real torture but I'm smiling under the cosh. I momentarily note the pleasant grassy field spinning over our heads and think that if he gets it wrong, we die right there, right below, instantly and without appeal. But at this moment I don't care or fear that possibility because if we do, it is in the midst of expressing something we love. No better epitaph.
But today no one is dying, only living life over the edge of the precipice. We return to Earth not with a thump but with a whisper. Although the Pitts tries scare us again as it shakes it's tail and threatens to leave the runway and teach us to respect it more. I sit trembling as the engine stops with a final shrug of it's broad cylinders and twitch of it's stubby wings. I can barely move. My stomach churns, my head fizzes and spins while my shoulder twitches as the muscle which will bother me for weeks begins to feel the pain.
I thank the man who injured me, made me sick and renewed my soul in a glorious moment of violent three dimensional poetry and I crawl away happier than a lottery winner on Monday morning.
Recorded rather drily in my logbook as 25 mins P/UT Pitts Special - Aerobatics.
That was my most memorable flight, tragically made all the more memorable because I never flew as a pilot since. I haven't stopped flying really, just a small gap year or three. I'm going back to it soon, anytime now, not this week though. I've got to wash the car or something. Maybe the week after next? I'm still a pilot really, just in between flights. You know how it is?